I am responsible for the Professional Services (PS) team in India. This includes project delivery, supporting product demonstrations, testing of new product features, customization work, the creation of white papers on significant topics and building the India team to provide high quality delivery.

2.What did you do prior to joining the company?

I have worked with IBM and Wipro with responsibility for customer relationships and project delivery, revenue and margin targets in the US and India for a variety of customers on different ERP and bespoke applications for nearly two decades.

3.How does your job help Zuora reach its goals?

The PS team in India has been serving as a technical arm of our US counterpart for the most part. In the last few quarters, the team has been performing the roles of Product SME or Functional Consultant in addition to the regular Technical Consultant role. Additionally, Zuora PS India has been helping out on custom demos for prospects, product testing, white papers and specialized documentation for the last few months. The latest change has been the addition of Technical Accountants to complete the circle of an end-to-end implementation team. My job of leading the PS team out of India aims at helping to expand our RevPro product toward implementation for customers outside of the US by resources based in India.

4.Would you please walk us through a typical workday for you?

I start with checking and responding to emails received overnight first thing in the morning. Reaching the office, I pick up my morning coffee and walk through the PS aisle, stop by for a chat with each of my team members on work and non-work items that morning, come back to my office and prioritize work for the day, address items one by one, attend scheduled and unscheduled meetings during working hours, then spend time with my family before getting back online to work duties from home. And, of course, address any adhoc work or escalations, have a personal chat with my team members and step out for the occasional chai or fruit juice with my team.

5.If you could say one thing to our customers and potential customers about what we do, what would that be?

It cannot be just one thing, but many things I would say to my customers and prospects. However, the top thing that comes to my mind is, “You do your business and earn revenue, Zuora would do its business by recognizing and reporting your revenue with utmost accuracy.”

6.What are your hobbies outside work?

Well, I love travelling… And I visit places on my motorcycle! I love reading books of any genre in both English and Tamil.

7.Let’s hear something about yourself people would find surprising.

I’m an open book. People who really know me don’t find me surprising. For those with whom I start building a relationship, my impatience with patience or motorcycle riding tours at my age or my openness may be surprising, initially.

8.What is your favorite part of your role here at Zuora?

It is very personal and hence my response is going to be a bit detailed. I’m an accountant by qualification, but many other trades by experience. Most of my roles have been mutually exclusive. I’ve performed the roles of a Business Analyst or a Team Leader or an “attempted” Technical Consultant, Project Manager, Program Manager, Delivery Leader and so on. Also, all of the organizations have been pretty big – the likes of IBM or Wipro or Oracle. A dream job for me has been the combined use of my skills and experience in accounting, functional, business analyst, technical and leadership roles all rolled together. Not to mention an environment that is family-like, as opposed to a situation where I don’t even know the first name of half of my organization. With Zuora, as the Professional Services head for India, it has been a dream come true! Like I said, it is personal!